10 November 2002
Lagos — Amid growing controversy over the staging of the Miss World beauty pageant in Nigeria, the federal government has made it clear that it will if necessary intervene to save the life of Amina Lawal, the woman sentenced to death by stoning under Islamic law.
A statement issued by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dubem Onyia said that the country's constitution would be used to thwart any negative ruling in the case of the woman convicted for adultery by a Sharia court sitting in Katsina.
She lost her appeal against the conviction in August and is now taking her case to a higher court.
But unless the government intervenes directly and actually quashes the conviction itself the controversy over her case will remain as strong as ever.
This latest statement is a clear sign of how apprehensive the Nigerian authorities have become to negative publicity over the staging of the Miss World contest.
They want the event to portray the country in a positive light, but the controversy over the stoning sentence threatens to overshadow the glitz and glamour of the occasion.
The statement makes it clear that, although the government is strongly opposed to the sentence handed down by the Islamic court, it will not at this stage directly intervene.
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